Why did U.S. Homeland Security seize imported Land Rovers from their owners?

The Defender's successor could bow as early as 2016, with a pickup variant following a year later.

PHOTO: Handout, Land Rover

U.S. citizens can now sleep soundly knowing that these dangerous vehicles are off the road

By Clayton Seams

Originally published: July 16, 2014

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Some may remember when United States Homeland Security seized R34 Nissan Skylines from their owners in 2009. This was Homeland Security’s reaction against an importer (and resultantly the owners of these cars) that had taken some legal liberties during the importation process. According to forum members on Defender Source, a very similar “raid” is being conducted on Land Rover Defenders in the U.S.

At least two forum members had their land Rovers seized yesterday during a synchronized 6:45 AM raid and according to an officer one forum member talked to, 40 other Land Rovers are being seized.

Why are these vehicles being taken? Well it seems that the importer cheated to get a few under America’s “25 year rule.” For those that don’t know, the United States has imposed an arbitrary 25-year age minimum on any car imported from a foreign market. It’s 2014 now meaning that 1989 cars are just becoming legal to import.

That river isn’t stopping the Land Rover Defender, but Land Rover is stopping production of the defender in 2015. A successor could follow a year later, with a pickup in 2017.Handout, Land Rover

It seems that at least two Land Rovers had their vin tags illegally changed by the importer to fool the authorities into thinking that they were old enough to import. Law abiding citizens then bought these cars without knowledge that they were newer than claimed.

Because these two (and possibly more) Defenders were illegally imported, Homeland Security has decided to, without warning, seize all the Land Rovers brought into the country through that importer that they consider “suspicious.”

The owners are now without their vehicles and face a horrible swamp of the reddest red tape to get their vehicles back. Many are asking if Homeland Security has anything better to do and the answer, judging by the scale of this seizure, would be that no, apparently they do not.

This video is from a similar raid from 2013 and shows an illegally imported Land Rover being unceremoniously crushed. Like the currently affected vehicles, the Land Rover in the video was the victim of a shady VIN swap.